Genome engineering refers to strategies and techniques for the targeted, specific modification of the genetic information (genome) of living organisms. Genome engineering is an active field of research because of the wide range of possible applications, particularly in the area of human health, e.g., to correct a gene carrying a harmful mutation or to explore the function of a gene. Early technologies developed to insert a transgene into a living cell were often limited by the random nature of the insertion location of the new sequence into the genome. Random insertions into the genome may result in disruption of normal regulation of neighboring genes leading to severe unintended effects. Furthermore, random integration technologies offer little reproducibility, as there is no guarantee that the sequence would be inserted at the same place in two different cells. Common genome engineering strategies, such as ZFNs, TALENs, HEs, and MegaTALs, allow a specific area of the DNA to be modified, thereby increasing precision of the correction or insertion compared to earlier technologies. These platforms offer a greater degree of reproducibility, but limitations remain.
Despite efforts from researchers and medical professionals worldwide to address genetic disorders, and despite the promise of previous genome engineering approaches, there remains a long-felt need to develop safe and effective universal donor cells in support of cell therapy treatments involving regenerative medicine and/or immuno-oncology related indications.